Happy Mother’s Day
This was a day in my life near Mother’s Day just a few years back:
I have a splitting headache yet I have three sick children to care for. I have a child who is not cooperating that I have to deal with. I have a toddler who wants me to play baseball and teenagers who want to talk. I have to make dinner and it is after 7 pm and I have a house that looks like a tornado and I don’t know where to start, let alone when I can. I certainly don’t feel very virtuous. And, nobody cares about it all but me. At least that’s how it feels sometimes, doesn’t it? It feels like nobody cares about all that we do, about how we feel, or when we’ll ever get rest. Welcome to motherhood. Doesn’t sound all that glorious, does it?
The functions of motherhood are obviously important, but the main thing is that we represent our God by how we respond to all these things that press on us. Giving Him glory in our everyday lives is what our children will remember and what matters for eternity. God will not say, “Well done – you were a good mother.” But He will hopefully say, “Well done, you were a good and faithful servant and made my Son known to those I gave you.”
Whenever we place too much importance on our office as mothers and our sacrificial tasks, the danger is that our focus becomes skewed and our emotions entangled. We begin to feel we deserve to be treated well, rather than the better focus of treating others well. We feel we deserve recognition for our sacrifices, rather than laying down our lives in response to the One Who was made of no reputation and laid down His life for us. We feel we deserve celebration rather than pointing heavenward and saying that all glory must belong to Him, for there is no one good, not even one.
If we make it through one day in our own strength, we feel the right to shout, “Bravo!” But more often than not, our strength fails and we come to the end of our resources before we come to the end of the day. But if His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses and the excellence of His power has filled our earthen vessels so that we can not only make it through a day, but come out victorious, we can shout “Hallelujah!” “Thank you, God! You are Faithful”
So what is the danger of just one day of focusing on ourselves? For one thing, if all of these earthly “rights” of celebration are not met satisfactorily in our eyes, we are disappointed and sometimes even angry with those we are called to love and serve. However, if all is done for Him and through Him and with Him, then any day is worthy of celebration because it is He Whom we celebrate. We can avoid all the trappings of anger and disappointment when we are not celebrated as we think we ought, and all the glory which rightly belongs to God is rightly given Him. For truly, without Him, we can do nothing.
This country applauds mothers once a year. But does heaven applaud mothers? Yes, it does, especially when mothers applaud Heaven first. Worship Him this Mother’s Day. When you do, He will say, Well Done. Rest.
Does anyone really care? He says, “Leave all your cares with Me because I care for you.” Yes, our Father in heaven cares tremendously and continually implores us to come to Him and find rest for our weary souls. But we must come.
Plan to spend time with your Father and He will show you how to be the virtuous mother you desire to be and God will get the glory.
Deborah Wuehler is the Senior Editor and Director of Production here at The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. She would say she is a very ordinary homeschool mom–with one exception: she has an extra-ordinary God Who provides all she needs for life and homeschooling. She has eight children aged 4 to 21. She is a leader of her local homeschool group and prays constantly for the right balance of priorities. Deborah’s mission is this: “To point other homeschoolers to the Lord in all they do, think, and feel and to confirm that they, too, can find everything they need for life, godliness–and homeschooling–in their knowledge of Him. (2 Peter 1:3, 4)”.
